


No Matter What They Tell You

by Iki_teru



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Comfort, Gen, No Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-25
Updated: 2019-01-25
Packaged: 2019-10-16 02:37:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17541050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iki_teru/pseuds/Iki_teru
Summary: a moment's reprieve before the end of everything.





	No Matter What They Tell You

**Author's Note:**

> This has been swimming in my head for a while now. While it implies events that are probably gonna happen in KH 3, please rest assured that this is entirely headcanon.   
> Entirely self-edited. Con Crit is, as always, appreciated.

Lea sidles up to the counter of the tiny coffee shop like he belongs here. Like this isn’t a forbidden pitstop at a world untouched by the darkness  — and gods that’s such a foreign concept, to breathe in and taste only air and earth and growing things and not the tang of nothing and dark. Yen Sid would probably be disappointed in them for the blatant flaunting of the rules but Lea had convinced the others  _ better ask forgiveness than permission _ and really, this was a break they had all sorely needed. 

He smiled blandly while the barista fitted the four drinks into a little cardboard carrier for him. “Thanks a bunch,” Lea winks, dropping an excessive amount of munny into the little tip jar. Might as well put it to good use, he probably wouldn’t need it for much longer. 

The others are waiting for him across the street and on the other side of a grassy hill. This is a pleasant, quaint world. Lea lets himself dream for a heartbeat that they had all grown up here, that their lives weren’t marked by war and they were just a handful of friends getting together to watch the stars. 

Kairi smiles up at him from where she’s curled around Sora’s side. “Welcome back.” For a moment Lea’s vision doubles and the girl greeting him is someone else. Someone with Kairi’s face and night dark hair. That keeps happening when he least expects it, this phantom figure superimposing over the girl he’s grown to know, and every time something stutters to a stop in his heart. 

Riku steps in, taking the coffees with a quiet “thanks,” and everything shifts and rights and Lea is looking only at Sora and Kairi. The ache in his chest doesn’t fade. Riku takes his place by the side of his friends and they make such a complete picture that Lea has to ask himself why he’s even here. 

“You gonna stand all night?” asks Sora, reaching out an impatient hand for his drink and complaining under his breath about how cold it is out here.

The knots and worry loosen a bit as Lea joins them, the three of them making a crescent that Lea chooses to sit in front of so he’s facing all of them. A satellite. The ground is damp enough that he wishes they had thought to bring a blanket. Nothing for it. He shifts his weight back, leaning on one hand while the other busies itself with his to go cup of coffee. The drink is bitter and he barely restrains a wince. “Sorry they didn’t have anything stronger,” he manages a lazy grin, focus shifting up towards the sky. It's easy to look up and pretend the stars are just far away lights and not worlds in need of saving. In the distance, he hears someone shriek with undisguised glee. He counts stars and wishes that could be them. 

Silence falls and Lea chances a glance at his companions. No, his  _ friends _ . Even if that’s still hard to understand, even if that still feels impossible to swallow. He’s never been very good at friends, something always happens and he always ruins it (except maybe sometimes  _ he  _ doesn’t ruin it, even if they manage to make him feel as if he had). The three of them lean into each other but even in that act, they manage to remain open. Kairi has a leg stretched out, tapping at Lea’s ankle with her boot. She’s been the most welcoming, which he probably doesn’t deserve but gave up arguing with her ages ago. (Long afternoons spent training in Merlin’s bubble, it was so easy then, to pretend like they had all the time in the worlds, that they weren’t learning skills to run head first into the end of everything. Her hair had been longer and her eyes had been harder to catch and he had been so, so full of apologies. Then she started calling him Axel again  _ if you keep apologizing for what happened when you were Axel then I guess you still  _ are _ Axel. _ He backed off after that. Mostly.)

It was easy, falling in step with her, considering her someone important to him. They had spent so much time training together, always two steps behind the others. He wasn’t worthy of any of them but he felt especially unworthy of her for all the things he put her through. She didn’t blame him, which somehow made him feel worse even now, even after he swore he’d stop apologizing. Now she’s here, laughing at something Sora said. Lea takes in the bruised cheekbone and the long, ugly cuts down her arm souvenirs from a fight with Saix that she still refused to talk about. 

Lea sips his coffee and shifts his gaze before he falls deeper into Kairi. He hadn’t seen much of Riku or Sora, everyone had been so busy with their missions and goals, it was only in stolen moments and conversations over the comm units Ienzo had given out that he grew to know them at all. But the camaraderie had come easily enough, each boy folding Lea into their circle effortlessly. 

In the privacy of his own head, Lea could admit he was a bit jealous of how easily they all managed to open their hearts to others even as he was thankful for their friendships. Riku leans against Kairi like a lazy alleycat even though they all know he’d be on his feet in an instant at the first sign of danger. His eyes are on the stars too, jumping from side to side and Lea wonders if he’s counting the worlds or if he’s thinking of battles yet to come or looking for home. Riku was gone with the mouse king and keeping the events of that journey close, or at least not sharing it in earshot of Lea. Lea doesn’t envy him, he doesn’t want to go back to the world of darkness if he can help it. 

Sora seems jittery, talking fast and jumping between stories, his hands moving in the air, spilling his drink but he just laughs, too loud, sucking the hot liquid off his fingers even as his knee bounces a too fast rhythm. It felt a little like he was trying to single-handedly stave off the darkness by himself. Which would be entirely like Sora. His eyes dance, looking at everyone in turn and at the sky and the ground like he’s trying to drink it all in, commit it to memory for the days to come. 

“Hey,” Lea interrupts, pushing himself to sit up straight. He leans forward, wrapping a hand loosely on Kairi’s boot. He can feel the warmth of her through the leather and his touch stills her, stills Sora beside her and brings Riku’s gaze back down to their little group. He looks from one to the other to the other. So much history between them all he might never be able to fully detangle himself from their pasts. “It’s gonna be okay.” 

Sora deflates, looks away, tries to pull away but Kairi makes a noise in the back of her throat and her grip on his arm goes firm. “What if it’s not?” Sora is quiet, less whisper and more breath. “What if we don’t all make it? What if…” his voice cracks and he stops, rubbing the heel of his palm against his eyes. 

Lea looks at Sora and lets himself see Roxas, just once, just for a moment and gods he  _ wishes _ but wishes do them no good so he sucks in a breath, and tries to say what’s been rattling around his chest. “We might drown ourselves in what-ifs,” he pauses for another sip of coffee. “But tomorrow we’re gonna go do what we have to because nobody else is gonna do it for us.” His hand flexes around Kairi’s ankle. He sees it ripple out, sees her squeeze Sora’s hand and reach for Riku’s. “I won’t say I’m not scared,” Lea found himself saying without giving himself permission to say it. “I don’t really want to die  _ again _ ,” this earns him a bark of surprised laughter from Sora and a snort from Riku and a thin smile from Kairi and all of that is more than Lea could ask for. “And I sure as hell hope we all walk away from tomorrow. I hope we get to come back here, to this little park and have more coffee.”  _ I hope we can laugh into the night and not worry about what comes after _ . “But that’s gonna be after. After we meet up with the others. After we take down Xehanort once and for all. There’s going to be an after, Sora. Ya gotta believe that or you’ll drive yourself crazy.” 

Sora takes in a deep, shuddering breath. He raises his little to-go cup and gives Lea a watery smile of thanks. “To after,”

Everyone leans in to touch cups and chime in with the toast. “To after!” 

Lea smiles to himself, leaning back to count the stars one more time. “To the four of us.” 

“Tomorrow,” Riku says in a tone of lullabies and storm bought promises. “There will be more of us.” 

Kairi sighs, flopping back and dragging her boys with her hand in hand. “Let’s make a promise,” she says to the stars. “To always remember now, to always tell the story of tonight. When things were nice and we had each other.” And then, “Lea, get over here and promise with us.” 

Sora holds out his free hand and Lea crawls across the cold, damp ground to stretch out beside them. Lea closes his eyes against the spinning stars and lets himself hope and wish and pretend. 


End file.
